HOW do you solve a problem like Pakistan cricket? The 2024 T20 World Cup hardened the notion that Pakistan can no longer rank itself among the world’s premier teams.

The Pakistan of Babar Azam, in the format that the cricket board prioritises, is a second tier outfit, swimming with the minnows instead of battling with the elite of international cricket. Worse still is the fact that the situation in the other formats is no better.

Something must change.

According to urban myth, Albert Einstein held that insanity was “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”, but many argue that he said no such thing.

Similarly, urban myth dictates that Pakistan is a world beating team, were it not for the grotesque underperformance of its players. Since time immemorial, there has been little question about the “ability” of Pakistan’s players, just huge anger at their inability to deliver. This is not true, either.

Babar Azam’s Pakistan have become a second-tier team, swimming with the minnows instead of battling with the cricketing elite

The reality that all must face — fans, politicians, administrators, and players — is that Pakistan’s players do not have the ability to compete with the best in the world. For a sustained spell they did, in the heydays of the 1980s and 1990s, and sporadically afterwards. But today, here and now, Pakistan must be considered a second-rank team because the players possess the abilities of a second-rank team.

Ability, however, is not to be confused with talent. Pakistan, as a nation of over 200 million, many of whom have a deep passion for cricket, is replete with natural talent. That reservoir is one of the reasons that Pakistan cricket has been highly competitive in the past, when the emphasis was on natural talent rather than player development. Over the years, that emphasis has shifted. Now, natural talent isn’t enough. The modern emphasis on player development, which other nations have embraced, has exposed weaknesses in Pakistan’s cricket structure.

What this means is that the knee-jerk reaction to blame players is the wrong one. Yes, the players have underperformed, and there must indeed be implications for those involved in such a moribund campaign. But the problems are at every level — and I repeat them with no apology: politicised cricket board governance, low pedigree selection panel, damaged domestic cricket, self-harming overreliance on the PSL, and absent player development.

These reasons are why the coaching team isn’t established, why the wrong players are selected, and why, even when the right players of talent are picked, they do not reach their full ability.

It is why we shout at our television screens and curse the players. It is why, despite it being pointed out series after series, tournament after tournament, Pakistan still does not know who to open the batting with, how to score runs in the middle and late order, where to find an international-class spinner, and how to get elite fast bowlers to bowl like elite fast bowlers.

What can possibly be the purpose of selecting Iftikhar Ahmed now? Imad Wasim and Mohammad Amir again failed when it mattered: Imad in the India run chase, when he choked the innings; Amir in the Super Over against the USA, when he lost his cool. Two men, brought back for their experience, playing like novices. Their time must be up. Who will take personal responsibility for this? The chief selector? Or the man who kept the chief selector in his post?

Who is responsible for picking Shadab Khan again and again, when he neither adds with bat nor ball? Who followed the duff hunch to pick Azam Khan, a player lost in the big time?

Why was Abrar Ahmed, a genuine spinner, in the squad if he wasn’t going to be a selection option? Saim Ayub remains a talented enigma. Usman Khan looked unready. All of these players underline Pakistan’s failure to turn talent into ability.

Primarily, it was the batting that cost Pakistan a place in the Super Eight stages. They didn’t score enough against the USA, and failed to chase a small total against India. The big guns, Babar, Mohammad Rizwan, and Fakhar Zaman, didn’t do what big guns are meant to do.

Babar rarely does, Rizwan less than he used to, and Fakhar only sporadically. This entire batting failure perfectly mirrors the system failure in Pakistan cricket.

But the problems don’t end there: Babar confirmed why it was right to take the captaincy from him. It’s hard to see where his on-field captaincy has a positive and decisive impact. And it’s harder to see how he compensates for that with leadership through his batting. Talks of factions in the team may or may not be true, but the cricket board has played a populist and counterproductive card in restoring Babar to the captaincy. It backfired.

The one positive for Pakistan was the performance of the fast bowlers. They were helped by the pitches in the USA, however, they still need to bowl in the right areas. In this regard, Pakistan weren’t pitch-perfect, but they were good.

Haris Rauf, the most infuriating of the three main bowlers, even showed some evidence of improvement. The point here is that Pakistan at least has something to build on, especially since the production line of bowling talent remains intact. Bowlers require less intense development than the best batsmen, but even here Pakistan cricket is failing to deliver the younger players’ full potential.

The conclusion, though, is that Pakistan cricket is in a woeful mess. And yes, while some radical change — if not surgery — is required, the mess is a longstanding one. The same mistakes are being made again and again, with the primary one being the political interference in the running of cricket affairs. A series of inadequate appointments to the chairmanship of the board and of the selectors, including the current incumbents, has brought Pakistan cricket to its knees — and cricketing disrepute. How can a country so rich in talent, squander it so wilfully?

It would indeed be the definition of insanity to keep doing this. It would indeed be insanity for the presidents and prime ministers of Pakistan to continue to destroy the national treasure that is the cricket team. J’accuse. It would indeed be insanity to continue to appoint unmeritorious allies to head the cricket board and select the cricket team. It would indeed be insanity not to fix the glaring faults with domestic cricket and the PSL. It would be insanity to get player development so wrong year after year, decade after decade.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2024